OPERA America draws on resources and expertise from within and beyond the opera field to advance a mutually beneficial agenda that serves and strengthens the field through programs in the following categories:

Creation: Artistic services that help artists and companies increase the creativity and excellence of opera productions, especially North American works;

Presentation: Opera company services that address the specific needs of staff, trustees and volunteers;

Enjoyment: Education, audience development and community services that increase all forms of opera appreciation.

New York City is home to the nation’s largest concentration of performing and creative artists, professional training institutions and music businesses. A majority of OPERA America’s Professional Company Members hold or attend auditions in New York City annually, and opera leaders from Europe and around the world are regular visitors.

In response to the pressing need for appropriate space in New York by members who suffered from the lack of good audition and work facilities in the city, OPERA America created the National Opera Center. The Opera Center serves many functions that support the artistic and economic vitality of the field by providing its constituents with a range and level of services never before possible.

OPERA America serves the entire opera field through research, publications and services. We work daily to facilitate the creation, performance and enjoyment of opera throughout North America. Much of what we do is made possible through generous contributions from opera lovers like you.

The Center:
The multi-venue Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2011. Its state of the art concert hall, The Palladium, is a 1600 seat, 154,000 square foot venue designed by David M. Schwarz Architects in local consultation with CSO Architects and acoustics by Artec Consultants. The Center’s other venues are The Tarkington, a 500-seat proscenium theater and home to the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre, and the Studio Theater, a flexible 200 seat “black box.”

In addition to the Civic Theater, the Center’s other resident companies are: the Actors Theatre of Indiana, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, the Central Indiana Dance Ensemble, the Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre, and the Indiana Wind Symphony. The 2012/2013 season of the Center for the Performing Arts offered 81 concerts in ten series: Classical, Great American Songbook, Jazz & Blues, Country, World Stage, Spotlight, Dance, Pop & Rock, Holiday and Family.

The Initiative for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook:
Permanently housed at The Palladium is the Michael Feinstein Initiative for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook. The Initiative sponsors many educational programs including the Great American Songbook Vocal Academy and Competition, the only such activities in the United States dedicated solely to the music of Broadway, Hollywood musicals and the Tin Pan Alley era.

Michael Feinstein, the Artistic Director of the Center, has a direct interest in the Songbook Initiative, participating in several Songbook activities including concerts and the Vocal Academy Competition. Given the origin in Indiana of such legendary songwriters as Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael, as well as Michael Feinstein’s own roots in the Midwest, the Initiative’s relocation to Carmel is somewhat of a homecoming for this treasure trove of American music.

The City:
The performing arts complex is the cornerstone of Carmel City Center, a $300 million mixed-use redevelopment championed by the long-time Mayor of Carmel, James Brainard. City Center is a pedestrian-oriented “city-within-a-city” that offers cultural and civic programs, a Center Green, residential apartments, office space, and numerous restaurant and retail venues, with plans for a boutique hotel.

“We have learned a lot about communities over the past half-century, since the early era of suburbanization and sprawl,” stated Mayor Brainard, “including the lesson that the two-car, one-family house tucked away from everything else is no longer a sustainable model on the large scale, either economically or environmentally. What’s more, it’s not really desirable. People want the convenience and conviviality that Carmel City Center offers—and the Center for the Performing Arts is an indispensable element of that experience.”

With a population of approximately 85,000, Carmel is one of the most affluent communities in the Midwest with excellent public schools, exceptional city services, a variety of on-going/annual events (a Farmers Market, summer concerts, and festivals), and well-managed parks and recreational activities. Carmel is consistently rated nationally as a top place to live in the United States, a “Bicycle-Friendly City” with an extensive trail and path system, an award-winning public library, an Arts and Design District, and other amenities. Carmel is located in Hamilton County just 12 miles north of Indianapolis, Indiana’s state capital.

The Position:
Reporting to the President & CEO, the Vice-President of Development is the Center for the Performing Arts’ most senior development professional and is responsible for the planning and implementation of all Annual, Capital and Endowment Campaigns and the maximization of contributed revenue. Currently the organization administers a $5.4 million annual campaign split between the Center and the Great American Songbook Initiative, and is planning to expand the major gifts program leading to a focus on endowment creation.

As an accomplished manager with an impressive campaign track record, the VP Development must inspire and manage a growing department of four Development professionals and partner with volunteer community leaders on the highest level of donor cultivation and solicitation. The Center’s annual budget is approximately $12 million with a staff complement of 33 full-time and 9 part-time, and a 28 member Board of Directors.

Responsibilities:
The VP Development administers a growing Development program with an annual expectation of unrestricted, and temporarily restricted contributions that exceeds $5 million. Directly supervising the efforts of Individual, Foundation, Special Event and Corporate Development efforts, the VP Development liaises and coordinates with the Vice-President of Marketing, the Director of the Songbook Initiative and the Vice- President of Finance and Human Resources.

The majority of the VP Development’s time and focus is split between managing the President’s calls activity, high level personal call cultivation and solicitation and management of the Development effort. The implementation of a new major gifts program, the next step in the Department’s growth, will yield dramatic results, given the excellent administration of the annual gift program, and should be a focus of the new VP.

In addition, the VP Development is responsible for the overall strategy and plan of the organization’s move from an annual unrestricted focus to a comprehensive giving approach that will maximize all sources of contributed revenues: unrestricted, temporarily restricted, permanently restricted and Legacy gifts.

Special Skills:
The VP Development must represent the most senior level of professional Development/Advancement accomplishment with a specialization in major gift cultivation, solicitation and stewardship. This individual is a respected manager who stimulates others through example and Socratic leadership, and understands that the Development process facilitates the donor’s ability to achieve personal fulfillment through philanthropy. The Director must also be an expert Development planner and strategist capable of elevating the entire Development Department.

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